Monday, April 20, 2009

Science Time!

I watched all four games of the Yankees/Indians series this weekend. Three on YES, one on FOX. Unsurprisingly, I have learned a lot about meteorology and wind streams from Michael Kay and Tim McCarver. NowI'mhearingabout itfromtheseidiots.

Sure. Maybe there's some truth to the theory that Old Yankee stadium, by not being demolished yet, is creating an unnatural air current. Or maybe leaving the concourse opened to the field is allowing the winds to come through unimpeded. Maybe it's Babe Ruth's bat! More research is probably needed on that, though.

What doesn't need a lot more explaining is the fence theory. Try going to this article. Hopefully you can access it without a BP subscription, but if not, get a subscription and allow me to summarize while your transaction is processed.

Following a scathing review of the new park by Jay Jaffe, Marc Normandin predicts that there may be some serious spikes in home run numbers, thanks to the new fences. While the dimensions of the playing field were supposed to be replicated as closely as possible, it didn't quite happen. Instead, there a discrepancies from the old park, some as large as -9 feet in right-centerfield. This, combined with changing the height of the walls, from a staggered 7-10 feet height, to a uniform 8 feet, can make certain areas up to 11 feet shallower in equivalent distance. So, if you had guys who typically flied out to the right field warning track, you now have guys who are going to get a lot of cheapy home runs.

BP finishes by saying the Yankees' pitching staff is pretty decent about keeping the ball on the ground. I'll finish by saying 1) I hope that's not true, and 2) they're raising the height on that right field porch, no later than February 2010.